NDP’s Kennedy Stewart and Conservative Brad Trost find common ground in public participation

Parliament Hill in Ottawa is shown on Tues., Oct. 29, 2013.

Photograph by: Sean Kilpatrick
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — One is a left-wing academic from the West Coast, the kind of oilsands industry-unfriendly elite Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives tend to view with contempt.

The other is a Saskatchewan farmer, fervently anti-abortion and a skeptic of climate change science.

But New Democratic Party MP Kennedy Stewart, who is seriously considering a bid to become B.C.’s official Opposition leader, and Conservative Brad Trost are collaborating to bring greater democracy to Parliament.

Stewart’s motion to introduce electronic petitions that will force MPs to debate issues of importance to the public will be voted on Wednesday.

The populist measure, already endorsed by Reform party founder Preston Manning, has the backing of Trost and a number of other Conservatives.

And next week MPs will vote on a Stewart-backed motion from Trost, which is intended to remove Harper’s steely grip on the process of selecting MPs to chair parliamentary committees.

These two motions, combined with Conservative MP Michael Chong’s more sweeping bid to give caucus a greater ability to boot out leaders, are part of a growing movement here.

They want to respond to Parliament’s tainted public image as a $451-million-a-year playpen populated by individuals who often behave like trained seals, stage-managed by young staffers in their respective leaders’ offices.

Trost said the NDP MP’s bill is an important tool to reverse apparent public apathy and cynicism that is partly manifested in low voter turnout at election time.

“There are vastly more people who will show up for causes rather than political parties, so there’s a disconnect there,” Trost told The Vancouver Sun Monday while standing beside Stewart near the entrance of the much-vilified House of Commons.

“Issues still matter to people. Parties and the system — not so much.”

Stewart, a rookie MP on leave from his post as a Simon Fraser University political science professor, said there is significant potential for greater public participation.

“There’s a hunger but, as Brad said, they don’t know how to access politics.”

Stewart’s motion has had a cool reception from the government.

During debate Monday, Tory MP Joe Preston defended the current system, which dates back to the Magna Carta of 1215.

MPs are required to table any paper petition on any matter if it is physically signed by at least 25 Canadians. The government then has 45 days to table an official written response.

Stewart’s motion calls for a parliamentary committee to spend a year studying web-based electronic petitions that would force a parliamentary debate — though not a vote.

Stewart has suggested a threshold of perhaps 50,000 names, along with a requirement that at least five or perhaps 10 MPs be required to endorse the petition before it is OK’d for open discussion.

Despite those safeguards, Preston warned that the system could open the door to “frivolous” and even “divisive” debates orchestrated by “special interests.”

“To date, these debates (in Britain) have included national issues such as health care and pension increases as well as special interests such as eliminating welfare benefits for the convicted 2011 London rioters, heart surgery at a local hospital, and the elimination of the badger cull,” Preston said.

He also cited abuses in the U.S. “We the People” system, which has required official responses to petitions calling for a nationalized Twinkie industry and the construction of a $850-quadrillion ($850,000,000,000,000,000) “Death Star” space station capable of destroying entire planets.

Despite that official rebuff, Stewart said he’s counting on the support of frustrated members of Harper’s 162-person caucus to pass his motion.

That frustration became public last year when a number of MPs condemned moves by Harper’s office to stifle B.C. Conservative Mark Warawa’s efforts to push through a motion condemning sex-selection abortion.

Trost said he’s confident he’ll also get majority support for his motion calling for a preferential-ballot vote by all MPs at the start of each parliamentary session to choose committee chairmen.

Harper, despite condemning the practice in opposition, has since 2006 dictated who gets chairman posts, which mean a $11,300 stipend on top of the MPs’ $160,200 base salary.

Taking control out of the prime minister’s hands is widely seen as an important step in boosting the independence and potential clout of committees and the ordinary MPs who sit as members.

Stewart has seconded both Trost’s motion and a more sweeping initiative by Tory Michael Chong, who has proposed a bill that includes provisions for a leadership review if a petition is signed by at least 15 per cent of caucus members.

A bare majority of MPs would then be able in a vote to trigger a party leadership selection process. The bill, if passed, would tip the power balance that is now overwhelmingly on the side of the prime minister.

Chong’s bill is still in its early stages and is expected to be up for second-reading debate in May.

Stewart, who is edging closer to a decision on whether to leave Parliament Hill to seek the B.C. NDP leadership, said in a speech Monday the three proposals are part of “package that would bring real change to how we do business in this place.”

Trost said he has no trouble finding common cause with a parliamentary colleague with whom he has, politically speaking, almost nothing else in common.

“This crosses the political spectrum. It’s neither a left nor right issue.”

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